My mother decided she had too many animals (no argument there) and Snickers the wall-eyed dog was getting on the nerves of Roxie the braindead bassett/bison mix, so Snickers now lives with me (Mom reserved visitation rights on weekends my daughter visits her.)
No pictures, 'cause I don’t have internet at home right now, but she looks almost exactly like the 4th dog over here. She’s about a year old, already fixed, all shots up to date, and the only problem we’ve had so far is that she wants to play with the cats, and is too oblivious to realize that the cats aren’t playing. They really do want to disembowel her.
I foresee problems with my off-kilter next-door neighbor, though. This would be the woman that has a big sign reading “Stay off my property and stay away from my garage and don’t touch this sign and the good lord see (sic) everything you do!” hanging on the side of her garage facing my kitchen door. On the day my son brought the dog over he walked outside to find the neighbor in MY backyard looking sourly at the picket-line we had installed out there.
Yesterday afternoon when my daughter was walking the dog in the backyard (leashed) Brunhilda hollered at her to keep that dog out of her yard. My daughter politely pointed out that she was in our yard, and hadn’t been anywhere near neighbor’s yard, and Brunhilda just looked sour and went back inside.
Right now it’s more funny than it is annoying - the dog doesn’t go outside unsupervised (and won’t, because besides not wanting to annoy people with a barking dog, I’m worried Brunhilda might do something to her), and we keep her firmly in our yard, so any bitching Brunhilda tries to do is just going to make her look foolish. I’m waiting for her to come over and say something to my husband or I (I’d go knock on her door and talk to her, but she won’t answer, because she’s, ya know, a FREAKING FRUITCAKE), at which point I plan to comment on people who get mouthy with 9 year olds (I’d be more irritated if I weren’t confident that my particular 9 year old is more than a match for Brunhilda - mini-Marli is totally down with my “kill her with kindness and give her no reason to complain” strategy, because she sees the funniness potential in that).
So. Leaving aside the sideshow next door, we’re quite happy with our new doggy. She’s sweet and friendly and bouncy and perky and likes playing fetch. She’s not a barker; I’ve only heard her bark twice all weekend, and both times it was at the cats. She snorfles like a small pig, though. It’s a squashy nose thing.
(Side anecdote: As soon as Snickers walked in the door my black cat Lunabrat went into full Halloween kitty mode - arched back, ears flat, poofy tail. She maintained this for two hours, stalking sideways as she followed the dog around the house with murder on her face. Oreobrat just hid under the coffee table and stared.)
Are recommendations on good books for training dogs? She’s housebroken, but “sit” and “heel” and “stay” would be good to have on hand.
